Dominique Guelin [Mimi's World Tour]

Bakery: Dominique Guelin (ドミニックジュラン)
Address: 2 Chome−1, Kita 5 Jonishi, Chuo Ward, Sapporo, Hokkaido
Website: http://www.donq.co.jp/pc/aboutdonq/dominique.html
Style: Japanese 
Price: $$ 

Now, I'll admit right away that I'm not one for these pseudo French patisseries that you see mostly in department stores and underground passages throughout major cities in Japan. I feel like there's something so fishy and fake about them, not to mention the fact that they never really have anything French, definitely not anything worthy of the Maitre Patissier they purport to be run/owned/inspired by. You can encounter independent patisseries that are infinitely more French than any of these. So I knew going into this that this is another one of these fishy French patisseries (what I didn't know was that Dominique Guelin is actually a part of Japanese bakery empire Donq -_-) and really, I wasn't even planning on visiting it, since I had other bakeries on my list to do, but I walked past the window and I was immediately lured in by the sight of this glazed twist doughnut with almonds (205 yen).

I even entered and walked around, looking at everything else they had to offer and trying in vain to distract myself from that tray of generously glazed pretzel-shaped treats facing the hallway. I just had to have it. Underneath that flavourful glaze with big chunks of skin-on almonds, the pull-apart braided dough was perfect: slightly flaky with a golden brown outside, soft, moist. Really good, but was it worth paying pretty much 3.5 times more than the delicious twist doughnut from Bostonbake? I want to say no, but that dough, that glaze and almonds are stopping me. What a shame it's part of the Donq enterprise!

Rating: ***1/2